As the nerves shot throughout my body with just minutes to go until Michael Oliver began the 168th Manchester derby, a small grin, a little smirk crept its way through the tension as Luke Shaw and Adnan Januzaj stood near the back of the eleven players hoping for a huge win away at Manchester City.
Shaw, 19 years and 114 days old. Januzaj, 19 years and 271 days. Two players, who when you combine their ages remain younger than Ryan Giggs, who Adnan Januzaj recently labeled as his ‘Godfather’. Step forward 60 minutes and Patrick McNair is substituted on for his third appearance in a Manchester United shirt; aged 19 years and 190 days. Progress a further thirty minutes and James Wilson is the player called upon to be the ‘super-sub’, replacing Robin van Persie; aged 18 years and 337 days.
‘Ryan has helped me a lot and is like a godfather. He has told me to work hard on the training pitch and the rest is more personal. We talk about football a lot.’ – Adnan Januzaj
Shaw, after a shaky start, put in another sturdy performance to lead us to believe that the young left-back’s £30 million price tag, which was guffawed at, may just be justifiable yet. The most expensive English teenager of all time was called upon to be the resolute performer in a make shift back four after Chris Smalling’s ‘stupid’ red card and Marcos Rojo’s injury.With all that to deal with, Shaw made the left flank an extremely hard area to put a cross in the box for Sergio Aguero.
Another youngster dealing with Sergio Aguero was Patrick McNair. The young Northern Irishman let Sergio Aguero to pull away from him for the goal yet a defender who can keep Aguero from darting across the box is a world-class defender, and McNair isn’t that yet. He looked assured, calm and succeeded in keeping his head in what was the undoubtedly the biggest 30 minutes of football in his life, championing his début against West Ham just weeks ago.
via BleacherReport.com
Aguero currently leads the scoring charts and if you want a striker to base your play on, it’s him or Robin van Persie. James Wilson has all the experience of Robin van Persie with him in training every day of the week and mimicked Sergio Aguero’s movement when he came on to try to salvage a point for the red devils. He followed the back four’s movements before pulling away and darting across the box, making space for his teammates and occasionally giving United’s midfield the chance to loft a ball over the top, which they didn’t take.
“It’s an important time for me. Obviously with those two going – Chicha on loan and Danny getting a move to Arsenal – it’s given me a great opportunity. It’s going to be really important for me to get the minutes on the pitch.” – James Wilson
Adnan Januzaj was sacrificed following Chris Smalling’s red card due to his smaller role in the long-term picture of the match. Yet for the 43 minutes for which he was on the pitch he managed to unnerve Gael Clichy and Manchester City on numerous occasions, causing Stefan Jovetic, Clichy and Martin Demichelis all to receive warnings from the referee for fouls on the Belgian as he turned them and looked to bomb down the right flank. He may have been taken off before half-time because of Smalling’s two ludicrous red cards but he showed why he was the replacement for Ryan Giggs with some ‘lush’ runs – as the Welsh would describe Giggs’ famous dances through defences across the continent.
All four of these young players have been at United for at least three years and are all under nineteen, and all played in the Manchester derby. The usual circumstances wouldn’t have forced van Gaal into bringing Patrick McNair off but there is no fault with that. The fact is, United are doing what was called upon by a large contingent of United fans; giving youth a chance.
With rumours circulating from Emol (Chilean news outlet) that Louis van Gaal has asked for Angelo Henriquez to be recalled from his loan at Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, it is yet another young United player who is going to get a chance. While the cynics may complain that the Chilean striker is only being recalled due to injury to Falcao, that complaint has no substance. Radamel Falcao is set to return in a short time according to van Gaal. The reason behind Henriquez’ recall is his outstanding performances for Dinamo, 10 goals in 12 games including four goals in the Croatian Cup to send them through to the third round. The 20-year-old has a far greater goal to game ratio this season than any of United’s striker and while Wayne Rooney will not be dropped because of his role as captain, Robin van Persie certainly could and Angel Henriquez could start his United career this season.
“The idea of returning to Manchester United and succeeding is one of the main goals for Henriquez,” – Henriquez’ father
The sale of Danny Welbeck to Arsenal was seen as the death of Manchester United. Welbeck was the defining character of the Manchester United youth academy in the past decade, the face of United’s philosophy of giving youth a chance. United’s identity was gone.
“They have probably lost the way of Manchester United a little bit. Now, rather than produce, it may be the case where they are buying in.” – Mike Phelan, ex-Manchester United Assistant Manager (BBC 5Live)
Getty Images
Yet we are now in the early stages of November and van Gaal, as promised by the Dutchman himself, is promoting youth faster than you can say Tyler Blackett. ‘Oh yes, Tyler Blackett’ I hear you say. Everyone has forgotten of Tyler Blackett’s regular place in the starting line-up at the beginning of this season. He was the first of many to receive their debuts from Louis van Gaal, the man who won the Champions League with an Ajax side in 1995 made almost entirely from the club’s academy. Van Gaal’s managed to give 7 youth products from the red side of Manchester first-team debuts this season while playing with James Wilson (who scored against Leicester in the U21’s, a day after he featured in the Manchester derby) and Adnan Januzaj, who were given their debuts last season.
Tyler Blackett and Jesse Lingard both started against Swansea in the first game of the season and Blackett started once more in the second game of the season with Lingard injured. Both games went against expectations, with a loss and a draw respectively. Yet van Gaal went to MK Dons in the Capital One Cup and handed debuts out to Andreas Pereira, Saidy Janko and Reece James.
After an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to the Dons, United hosted West Ham in search of redemption. Without the services of Phil Jones, Jonny Evans or Chris Smalling, van Gaal was expected to call Michael Carrick back from his recovery from injury early and play him as a centre back. Yet he dipped into the ever-present youth system and picked out Patrick McNair.
In the video above (at 5:10) McNair saves the game for the reds, a backwards header reminiscent of the improvised brilliance of Nemanja Vidic which saved so many games and won so many championships for United.
Van Gaal gave debuts to some of the world’s best; Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf. Maybe he’ll add to that list one day with McNair, or Blackett, or Pereira, maybe James, Janko or Lingard as well. Or maybe he’ll be known for developing James Wilson, Angelo Henriquez and Adnan Januzaj.
With seven first team debuts already handed out and van Gaal set to recall Henriquez from Croatia, one thing is for certain; van Gaal has not only kept record of over 3,600 matches in a row with an academy player in the squad but is steadily increasing the amount of young players in the squad. He is protecting the record and taking it to another level, and it is the perfect beginning to the perfect rebuild for a slacking Manchester United out of the Champions League.
Harry Robinson
Manchester United Editor at FansCorner and VAVEL UK.
U7's coach at AFC Southgate.
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